The Secret to Not Being “Busy” All the Time

I don’t want just a broad answer like, “I’ve got a lunch meeting at 12pm and then a conference call at 3:30pm.”

I want a detailed schedule of exactly what you plan on doing today in order to move your business/life forward.

My guess is you have no clue how your day is going to play out.

It’s not your fault, though.

You are at the mercy of the outside world, which is forcing you in all different directions, preventing you from having a productive and structured routine.

I get it. For several years I was playing “catch up” on a daily basis, trying to keep my head above water.

At the age of 24 I was lucky enough to start my very first business, a bootcamp gym in Charleston South Carolina.

Being so young I was completely naïve at what it took to run a successful business. However, I had no choice but to figure it out on my own.

Within months, we were already profitable and quickly becoming a well known facility. Just one year later I opened up my second gym and then decided to start an online business as well.

While business was going great, I ALWAYS lost control of my day and could never keep up with the daily tasks.

By 8am I had a To Do List a mile long with no real direction on how I was going to get everything accomplished before more tasks got piled on top of me.

It was a revolving cycle that just never slowed down or stopped.

Does that sound like you?

Perhaps you’re not an entrepreneur, but chances are no matter what your occupation is you’ve experienced this scenario before. It’s the absolute downfall of productivity and not being able to control your day.

Luckily, over the past year I’ve learned a very important solution that has solved my nightmare of always losing control of my day.

What’s the solution to this ever increasing problem?

Routine.

Yes, I know that sounds ridiculously simple. But you’ll see why below.

The key to owning your day is having a scripted routine.

What’s a scripted routine? It’s the process of planning out your day hour by hour, sometimes minute by minute.

Does it take some time and effort? Of course. But the payoff for spending 15 minutes scripting your day can literally save your hours of time and stress each and every day, guaranteed!

Now…here’s the key component to making this a success.

You MUST plan your day the night before.

As soon as your alarm clock goes off in the morning, you should be able to get out of bed and know exactly what you need to do at that moment in order to start your day.

Take 15 minutes before you go to bed scripting out how your day will go starting with as soon as your alarm goes off. It needs to be very specific, so there’s no guessing or confusion on what needs to be done.

After I brush my teeth at night before bed, I’ll grab my small notebook and plan out my day before going to sleep. Not only does it help me out the next day, but it actually puts my mind at ease and allows me to get a better nights rest.

Let me give you an example of what I wrote last night in my routine notebook.

4:00am: Grab glass of water, turn on my computer, work on my August promo calendar

4:30am: Start a cup of coffee, Meditate

4:45am: Drink my coffee while writing my staff weekly update

5:30am: Walk across the street to gym for my workout

6:15am: Take dogs for a walk

6:45am: Feed dogs, make myself breakfast, sit down and eat

7:15am: Clean up and head to the coffee shop

7:30am-10:00am Work on my top 3 priorities for day (this changes constantly)

10:15am: Head to my gym to do paper work, send emails, make phone calls, etc

…. And my day continues like that. I won’t go into the whole day as hopefully you get the point.

Now, I know that looks extreme and a very “robotic” way of living. But trust me…it has improved my business, my productivity, and allowed me MORE free time because I’m able to get all my work done so much earlier now.

My morning is much more structured than my afternoon. That’s because I understand the importance of winning my morning, so often times my afternoon is not quite as detailed simply due to the fact that I’ve got all my important tasks done already.

It’s all about being proactive instead of reactive. That’s an important lesson I learned from my mentor and business partner Craig Ballantyne. He’s the true inspiration behind my daily routine, and I know for a fact he follows this same type of formula. It simply works.

And I’m living proof that it works. About 8 months ago I sold my two gyms. Since then, I’ve already opened another gym and currently working on my second location. On top of that, I’m the director of an online training certification along with several other important duties.

Although I’m even busier today than I was a year ago, I actually have MORE free time and am able to get more work done despite the fact that I still have the same 24 hours in a day.

And it’s all because of my scripted daily routine.

Here’s the best part. You don’t need anything fancy to get this done. As I mentioned earlier, I use a little notebook to script out my day each night. I leave it beside my nightstand and grab it first thing when I wake up to start my daily routine.

If you struggle to control your day (especially your morning), start scripting your routine and I promise you will live a more productive and stress free life.

Now if you’ll excuse me I need to start my next task that’s on my notebook.

Daniel Woodrum is the Director of Turbulence Training and co-owns two South Carolina Fit Body Boot Camps with Early to Rise Editor Craig Ballantyne. Daniel lives in Charleston, S.C. with his wife, Brittney, and together they are on a mission to help the town of Charleston lose 10,000 lbs. by the year 2020....